Platt slams decision to abolish CSCI

The government’s decision to scrap the Commission for Social
Care Inspection 11 months after it was set up has been branded a
“farce” by its chair, writes Mithran
Samuel.

Denise Platt

Denise Platt also confessed her fears that social care would be
marginalised in super-inspectorates for children’s and adult
services, plans for which were announced in the Budget in
March.

She lambasted the government’s decision to abolish CSCI so soon
after its creation, having previously decided to scrap predecessor
body the National Care Standards Commission 17 days after its
establishment.

In a wide-ranging discussion, she said: “I don’t want to see the
farce that we have seen repeated. Social care regulation has had
enough turmoil.”

She said the government should have waited until CSCI had
completed its reforms of the regulation of providers before
considering plans to merge its children’s function with Ofsted and
its adult role with the Healthcare Commission.

She warned that social care could be marginalized in these
arrangements, adding: “In bigger institutions with bigger agendas
you need to keep the voice of people who are already marginalised
at the centre. If the services fail [social care users] there’s not
a lot of social justice in the world.”